After a severe shoulder injury, Pinnacle swimmer Maggie Wethington will be returning to the water this week for the first time in six-months to finish her senior season.

Wethington is a year-round swimmer who competes with the club swim team at the Jewish Community Center when she is not in high school season.

In January 2018, just a few months after ending her junior season, Wethington knew something wasn’t right.

“I was swimming for my club team and over a period of time my shoulder started to really hurt,” Wethington said.  “I talked to my mom and I said I think something’s really wrong and we should go see a doctor.”

After visiting three doctors, Wethington was informed that she had torn her shoulder. Wethington pushed through till March, waiting to finish her club season, and on April 18 she had surgery.

Blake Rider, a first-year swim coach at Pinnacle, has dealt with several sports-related injuries in his past. “I’ve had many kids with shoulder injuries or knee injuries or wherever it is,” Rider said. “It’s just trying to keep them healthy and trying to modify whatever stroke or set they were doing in order to still swim and still stay in the water, but keep their injury from getting worse.”

After a six-month recovery, Wethington is ready to get back in the water with hopes of competing in state. Wethington is expected to return to the team today and is eager to finish off the season with  hopes of high success.

“It’s hard to say how she’ll do since she’s battling this injury right now,” Coach Troy Layman said. “But I have high hopes for her. I think her times are going to be really good.”

Wethington has spent the last six months recovering on the pool deck, supporting her teammates and doing as much as she can.

“I couldn’t swim or even kick for three to four months,” Wethington said. “But recently I’ve started kicking again and I’ve joined my club team so I can swim again.”

Wethington has been an asset to the Pinnacle swim team for three years and is hoping to get her times close enough to where they need to be in order to swim on a relay team at state in just one month.

“Honestly, I think she’s young enough that she has enough talent,” Layman said. “I think she will make it to state.”